Project description:To address the heterogeneity of gene regulation and expression in cell types of a brain region with strong evidence for relevance to schizophrenia, we carried out whole genome methylation and expression analyses using post-mortem brain tissue from BA46 that underwent fluorescence-activated nuclei sorting (FANS). Importantly, we used whole genome bisulfite sequencing (WGBS) for methylation quantification to have an unbiased assessment of epigenetic modifications associated with schizophrenia, and additionally carried out whole genome sequencing (WGS) of the brain samples to account for genetic background differences. We found that a number of schizophrenia GWAS loci overlap with sites of cell-specific differential methylation in schizophrenia brain tissue. Differential methylation is also associated with differential gene expression in a cell-specific manner. Co-expression network analysis can identify groups of genes that are enriched for differentially methylated regions in each cell type, and these groups of co-expressed genes underscore shared molecular pathways that might be at risk in schizophrenia. Together, these data indicate that the integration of multiple levels of data in a cell-specific manner can provide novel biological insights into complex genetic disorders such as schizophrenia.
Project description:Background: Schizophrenia is a severe, highly heritable, neuropsychiatric disorder characterized by episodic psychosis and altered cognitive function. Despite success in identifying genetic variants associated with schizophrenia, there remains uncertainty about the causal genes involved in disease pathogenesis and how their function is regulated. Insights into the functional complexity of the genome have focussed attention on the role of non-sequence-based genomic variation in health and disease. Although a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying disease phenotypes is best achieved using an integrated functional genomics strategy, few studies have attempted to systematically integrate genetic and epigenetic epidemiological approaches. Results: We performed a multi-stage epigenome-wide association study (EWAS), quantifying genome-wide patterns of DNA methylation in a total of 1,801 individuals from three independent sample cohorts. We identified multiple differentially methylated positions (DMPs) and region (DMRs) associated with schizophrenia, independently of important confounders such as smoking, with consistent effects across the three independent cohorts. We also show that polygenic burden for schizophrenia is associated with epigenetic variation at multiple loci across the genome, independently of loci implicated in the analysis of diagnosed schizophrenia. Finally, we show how DNA methylation quantitative trait loci (mQTL) analyses can be used to annotate the extended genomic regions nominated by genetic studies of schizophrenia, with Bayesian co-localization analyses highlighting potential regulatory variation causally involved in disease. Conclusion: This study represents the first systematic integrated analysis of genetic and epigenetic variation in schizophrenia, introducing a methodological pipeline that can be used to inform EWAS analyses of other complex traits and diseases. We demonstrate the utility of using polygenic risk score (PRS) for identifying molecular variation associated with etiological variation, and mQTLs for refining the functional/regulatory variation associated with schizophrenia risk variants. Finally, we present strong evidence for the co-localization of genetic associations for schizophrenia and differential DNA methylation. 675 whole blood derived DNA samples (353 schizophrenia cases and 322 controls) representing phase 1 of our meta-analysis. Bisulfite converted DNA from these samples were hybridized to the Illumina Infinium 450k Human Methylation Beadchip v1.0.
Project description:Abstract Background: Schizophrenia is a severe, highly heritable, neuropsychiatric disorder characterized by episodic psychosis and altered cognitive function. Despite success in identifying genetic variants associated with schizophrenia, there remains uncertainty about the causal genes involved in disease pathogenesis and how their function is regulated. Insights into the functional complexity of the genome have focussed attention on the role of non-sequence-based genomic variation in health and disease. Although a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying disease phenotypes is best achieved using an integrated functional genomics strategy, few studies have attempted to systematically integrate genetic and epigenetic epidemiological approaches. Results: We performed a multi-stage epigenome-wide association study (EWAS), quantifying genome-wide patterns of DNA methylation in a total of 1,801 individuals from three independent sample cohorts. We identified multiple differentially methylated positions (DMPs) and region (DMRs) associated with schizophrenia, independently of important confounders such as smoking, with consistent effects across the three independent cohorts. We also show that polygenic burden for schizophrenia is associated with epigenetic variation at multiple loci across the genome, independently of loci implicated in the analysis of diagnosed schizophrenia. Finally, we show how DNA methylation quantitative trait loci (mQTL) analyses can be used to annotate the extended genomic regions nominated by genetic studies of schizophrenia, with Bayesian co-localization analyses highlighting potential regulatory variation causally involved in disease. Conclusion: This study represents the first systematic integrated analysis of genetic and epigenetic variation in schizophrenia, introducing a methodological pipeline that can be used to inform EWAS analyses of other complex traits and diseases. We demonstrate the utility of using polygenic risk score (PRS) for identifying molecular variation associated with etiological variation, and mQTLs for refining the functional/regulatory variation associated with schizophrenia risk variants. Finally, we present strong evidence for the co-localization of genetic associations for schizophrenia and differential DNA methylation. 847 whole blood derived DNA samples (414 schizophrenia cases and 433 controls) representing phase 2 of our meta-analysis. Bisulfite converted DNA from these samples were hybridised to the Illumina Infinium 450k Human Methylation Beadchip v1.0.
Project description:Recent studies suggest that genetic and environmental factors do not account for all the schizophrenia risk and epigenetics also plays a role in disease susceptibility. DNA methylation is a heritable epigenetic modification that can regulate gene expression. Genome-Wide DNA methylation analysis was performed on post-mortem human brain tissue from 24 patients with schizophrenia and 24 unaffected controls. DNA methylation was assessed at over 485 000 CpG sites using the Illumina Infinium Human Methylation450 Bead Chip. After adjusting for age and post-mortem interval (PMI), 4 641 probes corresponding to 2 929 unique genes were found to be differentially methylated. Of those genes, 1 291 were located in a CpG island and 817 were in a promoter region. These include NOS1, AKT1, DTNBP1, DNMT1, PPP3CC and SOX10 which have previously been associated with schizophrenia. More than 100 of these genes overlap with a previous DNA methylation study of peripheral blood from schizophrenia patients in which 27 000 CpG sites were analysed. Unsupervised clustering analysis of the top 3 000 most variable probes revealed two distinct groups with significantly more people with schizophrenia in cluster one compared to controls (p = 1.74x10-4). The first cluster was composed of 88% of patients with schizophrenia and only 12% controls while the second cluster was composed of 27% of patients with schizophrenia and 73% controls. These results strongly suggest that differential DNA methylation is important in schizophrenia etiology and add support for the use of DNA methylation profiles as a future prognostic indicator of schizophrenia Genome-Wide DNA methylation analysis was performed on post-mortem human brain tissue from 24 patients with schizophrenia and 24 unaffected controls. DNA methylation was assessed at over 485 000 CpG sites using the Illumina Infinium Human Methylation450 Bead Chip.
Project description:Background: Schizophrenia is a severe, highly heritable, neuropsychiatric disorder characterized by episodic psychosis and altered cognitive function. Despite success in identifying genetic variants associated with schizophrenia, there remains uncertainty about the causal genes involved in disease pathogenesis and how their function is regulated. Insights into the functional complexity of the genome have focussed attention on the role of non-sequence-based genomic variation in health and disease. Although a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying disease phenotypes is best achieved using an integrated functional genomics strategy, few studies have attempted to systematically integrate genetic and epigenetic epidemiological approaches. Results: We performed a multi-stage epigenome-wide association study (EWAS), quantifying genome-wide patterns of DNA methylation in a total of 1,801 individuals from three independent sample cohorts. We identified multiple differentially methylated positions (DMPs) and region (DMRs) associated with schizophrenia, independently of important confounders such as smoking, with consistent effects across the three independent cohorts. We also show that polygenic burden for schizophrenia is associated with epigenetic variation at multiple loci across the genome, independently of loci implicated in the analysis of diagnosed schizophrenia. Finally, we show how DNA methylation quantitative trait loci (mQTL) analyses can be used to annotate the extended genomic regions nominated by genetic studies of schizophrenia, with Bayesian co-localization analyses highlighting potential regulatory variation causally involved in disease. Conclusion: This study represents the first systematic integrated analysis of genetic and epigenetic variation in schizophrenia, introducing a methodological pipeline that can be used to inform EWAS analyses of other complex traits and diseases. We demonstrate the utility of using polygenic risk score (PRS) for identifying molecular variation associated with etiological variation, and mQTLs for refining the functional/regulatory variation associated with schizophrenia risk variants. Finally, we present strong evidence for the co-localization of genetic associations for schizophrenia and differential DNA methylation.
Project description:Abstract Background: Schizophrenia is a severe, highly heritable, neuropsychiatric disorder characterized by episodic psychosis and altered cognitive function. Despite success in identifying genetic variants associated with schizophrenia, there remains uncertainty about the causal genes involved in disease pathogenesis and how their function is regulated. Insights into the functional complexity of the genome have focussed attention on the role of non-sequence-based genomic variation in health and disease. Although a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying disease phenotypes is best achieved using an integrated functional genomics strategy, few studies have attempted to systematically integrate genetic and epigenetic epidemiological approaches. Results: We performed a multi-stage epigenome-wide association study (EWAS), quantifying genome-wide patterns of DNA methylation in a total of 1,801 individuals from three independent sample cohorts. We identified multiple differentially methylated positions (DMPs) and region (DMRs) associated with schizophrenia, independently of important confounders such as smoking, with consistent effects across the three independent cohorts. We also show that polygenic burden for schizophrenia is associated with epigenetic variation at multiple loci across the genome, independently of loci implicated in the analysis of diagnosed schizophrenia. Finally, we show how DNA methylation quantitative trait loci (mQTL) analyses can be used to annotate the extended genomic regions nominated by genetic studies of schizophrenia, with Bayesian co-localization analyses highlighting potential regulatory variation causally involved in disease. Conclusion: This study represents the first systematic integrated analysis of genetic and epigenetic variation in schizophrenia, introducing a methodological pipeline that can be used to inform EWAS analyses of other complex traits and diseases. We demonstrate the utility of using polygenic risk score (PRS) for identifying molecular variation associated with etiological variation, and mQTLs for refining the functional/regulatory variation associated with schizophrenia risk variants. Finally, we present strong evidence for the co-localization of genetic associations for schizophrenia and differential DNA methylation.
Project description:Recent studies suggest that genetic and environmental factors do not account for all the schizophrenia risk and epigenetics also plays a role in disease susceptibility. DNA methylation is a heritable epigenetic modification that can regulate gene expression. Genome-Wide DNA methylation analysis was performed on post-mortem human brain tissue from 24 patients with schizophrenia and 24 unaffected controls. DNA methylation was assessed at over 485 000 CpG sites using the Illumina Infinium Human Methylation450 Bead Chip. After adjusting for age and post-mortem interval (PMI), 4 641 probes corresponding to 2 929 unique genes were found to be differentially methylated. Of those genes, 1 291 were located in a CpG island and 817 were in a promoter region. These include NOS1, AKT1, DTNBP1, DNMT1, PPP3CC and SOX10 which have previously been associated with schizophrenia. More than 100 of these genes overlap with a previous DNA methylation study of peripheral blood from schizophrenia patients in which 27 000 CpG sites were analysed. Unsupervised clustering analysis of the top 3 000 most variable probes revealed two distinct groups with significantly more people with schizophrenia in cluster one compared to controls (p = 1.74x10-4). The first cluster was composed of 88% of patients with schizophrenia and only 12% controls while the second cluster was composed of 27% of patients with schizophrenia and 73% controls. These results strongly suggest that differential DNA methylation is important in schizophrenia etiology and add support for the use of DNA methylation profiles as a future prognostic indicator of schizophrenia
Project description:DNA methylation of gene promoter regions represses transcription and is a mechanism via which environmental risk factors could affect cells during development in individuals at risk for schizophrenia. We investigated DNA methylation in patient-derived cells that might shed light on early development in schizophrenia. Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) may reflect a âground stateâ upon which developmental and environmental influences would be minimal. Olfactory neurosphere-derived cells (ONS cells) are an adult-derived neuro-ectodermal stem cell modified by developmental and environmental influences. Fibroblasts provide a non-neural control for life-long developmental and environmental influences. Genome-wide profiling of DNA methylation and gene expression was done in these three cell types from the same individuals. All cell types had distinct, statistically significant schizophrenia-associated differences in DNA methylation and linked gene expression, with Gene Ontology analysis showing that the differentially affected genes clustered in networks associated with cell growth, proliferation and movement, functions known to be affected in schizophrenia patient-derived cells. Only 5 gene loci were differentially methylated in all three cell types. These findings suggest that schizophrenia-associated DNA methylation may be a response to the homeostatic demands of different cell types in their local environments. Understanding the role of epigenetics in cell function in the brain in schizophrenia is likely to be complicated by similar cell type differences in intrinsic and environmentally-induced epigenetic regulation. This dataset represents the gene expression part of the study. The DNA methylation data is deposited under accession E-MTAB-2154.